Google Expands Gmail Search, Is It Too Much?

Google today announced better search integration for Gmail, their popular web-based email service. The new and improved version will have a more thorough auto-complete feature thanks to better crawling of the messages in your email. Better search sounds great, but is it really better or is it just a more complete privacy invasion?

While I don’t have any real problem with Google reading my email, they have been doing it all along anyway, this seems like something that privacy advocates, already leery of the Mountain View search company, will latch onto as more evidence against Google. After all, the better auto-complete comes via better reading of your messages. Google admits as much in their announcement – “Now when you type something into the Gmail search box, the autocomplete predictions will be tailored to the content in your email, so you can save time and get the information you want faster than ever before.”

The new feature will be rolling out over the next few days. For now it’s only available for English users, but Google promises support for other languages will be coming over the next several months. You can read their announcement over at the Gmail blog. How do you feel about this improved email search? Do you think it’s just a feature to make the service more useful or are you genuinely worried about your personal data?